Figurants of the scandal "Caviar Diplomacy" withdrawn from PACE

Baku / 04.01.18 / Turan: The makeup of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE is updated by a quarter. According to parliamentary sources, MPs Elkhan Suleymanov, Muslim Mammadov and Elshan Musayev were withdrawn from the delegation. Instead of them were appointed chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party Asim Mollazade, non-party - Ulviyya Agayeva and Elshad Hasanov.

The latter two are little known to the public. The 41-year-old Hasanov was elected to parliament from the 17th Yasamal Third District. Before the election, he worked as a lawyer in a private consulting company "Kaspian Konsaltinq". Agaeva was elected to the parliament from the 106th Tovuz-Gazakh-Agstafa region.

At the time of her election, she worked at the Nizami Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences. Official comments on the reasons for the change in the composition of the delegation to the PACE have not been received.

However, it is known that Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mammadov were the figurants of a scandal known as "caviar diplomacy".

This is a study of the international NGO "European Stability Initiative" (EIS), which cited the facts of massive bribery of a number of European politicians and members of the PACE in order to block decisions in the PACE condemning human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

The same facts were also mentioned in another high-profile study, the Azerbaijan Land-Rumble, published in September 2017 by the international journalistic investigative network OCCRP.

Personnel changes occurred in the PACE delegation also against the backdrop of tension between the Azerbaijani government and the Council of Europe, because of Baku's refusal to comply with the decisions of the Strasbourg court on the case of political prisoner Ilgar Mammadov.

Representatives of official Baku did not even exclude the possibility of the country's withdrawal from the organization. However, the renewal of the makeup of the delegation indicates the intention of the authorities to remain in the Council of Europe. A new member of the PACE delegation Asim Mollazade told Turan that it is very important for Azerbaijan to be in the Council of Europe.

Strasbourg is a platform where Azerbaijan has the opportunity to raise problems of violation of territorial integrity, he said.

At the same time, Mollazade stressed that the Council of Europe is the only international organization, the resolution of which says about the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, ethnic cleansing and forced migrants.

It should be noted that the delegation includes: Samed Seidov (chairman), Ganira Pashayeva (non-party), Fazil Mustafa (chairman of the Great Establishment Party), Sabir Hajiyev (chairman of the Civil Unity Party), Sahib Gafarov (Yeni Azerbaijan Party) Sevinj Fataliyeva (New Azerbaijan Party), Rafael Huseynov (non-party), Rovshan Rzayev (non-party), and Vusal Huseynov (Yeni Azerbaijan Party). -B06--